University of Windsor research is destroying assumptions that adults with autism won’t want to or can’t participate in exercise and sports.

Support workers thought it might take weeks for some autistic participants in a 16-week study just to be comfortable enough to enter the class. The participants had never been shown how to do a lunge or skip rope. By the last class Tuesday, they were sweating through 30-minute workouts twice a week, walking at the track with university athletes and playing badminton and ping-pong.

And they loved it.

“Everyone told us it wouldn’t be done,” said Chad Sutherland, the applied learning co-ordinator for the university’s kinesiology department. “Some of the highlights of this is we’ve introduced them to new sports and they play against each other.”

The study, which wrapped up Tuesday, included 14 autistic adults who have an intellectual disability. The study used exercise to gauge improvements in motor skills and self-esteem. Sutherland said he hasn’t seen published literature on exercise programs and autistic adults.

“We are excited that as soon as we get this processed we will be presenting the research at some upcoming conferences this summer,” Sutherland said.

“It’s going to be good. I think we’ve really found some results that would go against what some people would suggest. Some people would suggest that they need the same trainer, they need the same exercise, you can’t change their routine, you can’t bring them somewhere new. We’ve shown that we’ve had great success doing it.”

Joel Parent, 28, of Emeryville stopped playing ping-pong long enough at the university’s St. Denis Centre to say he liked badminton, running on the track and swinging the battle bands. When organizers first installed the two long ropes, they didn’t think it would be easily added to the routine but participants gathered around the new equipment and asked how to use it.

When Parent started he couldn’t skip rope. “Fifteen,” he said of the number he can do in a row.

Carrie Schram, Parent’s personal support worker, said he liked exercising so much he joined a gym. Schram worries about the group now that the study is done. “There’s not enough things for adults with disabilities. There really isn’t, especially physical activity,” Schram said.

Professors Sean Horton and Nadia Azar and two graduate students, Phil McKeen and Kelly Carr, are involved in the study. Ten undergraduate students were trainers gaining practical experience.

Sutherland started the Adapted Physical Exercise research group last year with adults who had physical and intellectual disabilities. That study received a $10,000 Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport grant. The latest study received $10,000 with half from the university and half from the Southern Network of Specialized Care.

Kinesiology professor Horton said he hopes a corporate sponsor can come up with a few thousand dollars a year so the department can continue to run the classes and help offset transportation costs for participants.

Woodslee’s Joshua Palmer, 31, was in both programs. His Community Living support worker Julie Schur said Palmer summed up going to the last class: “Sad.”

Schur said the focus he puts into exercising has transferred to his everyday life. Many can’t afford a gym membership, she said.

“I really do hope it continues for their sake,” Schur said. “It’s exercise. It’s healthy. They are included. They don’t feel out of place.”

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I don’t know about impossible, but given that it’s taken almost 20 years to churn out five instalments of this series – something the early Bond franchise managed in six years, and the 1960s M:I TV show in just six weeks – these missions are certainly a lot of work